Electronic mail (email) communication is becoming increasingly pervasive throughout the world. Enterprises rely on email to conduct business, governments rely on email to communicate, and individuals rely on email to conduct their affairs.
In recent years, email communication has expanded to include Instant Messaging (IM) and Text Messaging. Communications now use any computer (processing device) or combination of portable devices that may interact wirelessly or interact over a combination of wired and wireless networks. Some techniques also use groupware where more than two or more people interact with one another via direct communications. These techniques present real-time or near real-time communication with individuals via their portable devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), phones, etc. IM has also become popular in virtual communities, where members interact with one another electronically in user-formed communities, associations, or groups.
Unfortunately, mass marketers and nefarious individuals have watered down the usefulness of email communication. That is, spam, Phishing techniques, and even computer viruses are now regularly proliferated via email. As a result, many individuals and entities have invested in expensive filtering mechanisms and/or have limited the extent to which they may view their messages. In some cases, individuals may even carry multiple email accounts and may only view some of their email accounts on a very infrequent basis. These situations make it difficult for legitimate enterprises to reach their customers/clients.
In effect, individuals have become desensitized to their email because their inboxes are bursting with far too many junk emails of no value to them or even worse potentially harmful to them. Harmful emails can include such things as viruses that damage a users' device or files or Phishing emails that link a user to a bogus World-Wide Web (WWW) site for purposes of obtaining confidential information about the user. The latter technique is often used to illegally access financial accounts and/or to assume an online identity of a user.